Who’s HE Calling “Crazy”

Alan Greenspan, the former “Maestro” of the Federal Reserve, recently explained the dire straights of the American economy as he sees it from senility:

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan voiced concern that the U.S. economic and political system could be undermined by what he called “crazies.”

“It is the worst economic and political environment that I’ve ever been remotely related to,” Greenspan, 90, told a conference in Washington Tuesday evening sponsored by Stanford University and the University of Chicago.

On the economic front, the U.S. is headed toward stagflation — a combination of weak demand and elevated inflation, according to Greenspan. “Politically, I haven’t a clue how this comes out.”

“We’re not in a stable equilibrium,” he said. “I hope we can all find a way out because this is too great a country to be undermined, by how should I say it, crazies.”

Crazies. I’m not sure if this is a weak attempt to blame honest people who, upon finally waking up, are angry to find their nation in ruin, or if it is a weak admission about his own actions and those of his allies and successors.

Greenspan largely kicked off the modern era of the Fed’s Mandrake Mechanism. During his time he was dubbed “The Maestro” by Bob Woodward because his easy money strategies seemed, at the time, to temporarily lift the country and ease economic woes. There was more of a country to lift then and the woes weren’t as bad as they are now. Today they are much worse, as Greenspan admits, because of his actions and those of the Fed after his tenure.

The party is over because the magic has ceased to have effect. “Politically, I haven’t a clue how this comes out,” mumbled the Maestro. Of course, he doesn’t. The politics were never his expertise. His job was to run the money, creating it out of a thin computer. The politics were a side phenomenon.

Somebody forgot the cigarettes and blindfolds. Glassdoor.

The politicians were and are concerned with their own power. To them all the fake money is another side phenomenon. They haven’t a clue how it comes out economically. The fact is, neither side really cares.

That leaves the rest of us caught in the middle, trapped between two dying and angry, violent dragons, trashing about wildly. And the old leech will call anyone who expresses dismay or who tries to suggest solutions “crazy”. Well, it is all enough to make anyone crazy.

I do have a clue as to how it all comes out and it isn’t pretty. The outcome is becoming obvious to any but the most ardent and stay-at-home football fans and Pokemon fanatics. Call me crazy.